Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Since being in the Gunnison, Colorado area, we have visited this national park on two different occasions and viewed the canyon from two different sides. This park is the newest park in the national park system; it was established in 1999 by President Clinton. Before dams were established, the river used to slam through the gorge at 12,000 cubic feet per second so it is not hard to believe that at one point, the gorge is 2, 772 feet deep. This is an amazing canyon but I learned that a canyon of this magnitude is very hard to photograph. Here's my best effort from the first day when we traversed the south rim.

We also drove to the bottom; it was a six mile drive down to a dam. Lots of switchbacks which made for very different lighting.

On another day, we drove the north rim and found it had a very different look. Some of the overlooks were downright scary.

All of our drives around this area have involved spectacular views of the aspen trees. We are told that the color in Colorado is better than it has been for many years. In fact, on TV one night the newscaster interviewed a fellow from MN who comes out every year in September to hunt and he said this year had much more vibrant color than he typically encounters.

We did spend a few hours on two different days by a reservoir and Mike even caught a some trout. The night before we went to Taylor Lake Reservoir, it had snowed about 11,000 feet. The snow capped mountains surrounding the lake added to the day.

Tomorrow is moving day. We are heading down to Mesa Verde National Park for three days; I'll let you know what that park is like in a later post.